It’s a huge step and investment to promote your employees.

It can be incredibly rewarding to give a well-deserved promotion to staff members. Promoting high-performing staff members can increase their motivation and satisfaction in the work they do. 

But it would be remiss to ignore how the current labour market has impacted the promotion process for many organisations. 

According to the International Monetary Fund, there were 50% to 80% more unfilled job positions in 2021 than there were before the pandemic in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The tight job market has helped increase worker wages, benefiting the workforce. 

However, this also serves as a double-edged sword; aside from adding to the global inflation risks, the current labour shortages have pushed businesses to promote employees that aren’t necessarily ready or qualified for higher positions, leading them to pay higher wages while getting substandard performances. 

It’s crucial to focus on the development of your employees, especially potential candidates for succession and promotion. Monitoring their progress and watching for signs of growth (or lack thereof) will give you a clear idea of who among your employees is ready for a promotion and who needs additional training.

5 signs that you need to promote your employee

Keeping track of how your employee is performing for a specific time period can help you assess if it’s beneficial to your organisation to promote certain staff members while ensuring that you avoid giving higher positions to unqualified personnel. 

We’ve shortlisted five key signs that indicate your employee is ready to be promoted to a higher position.

1. They perform well in leadership roles

A good indication that your staff member is ready for a promotion is how well they’ve performed in their role and if they’ve shown initiative in taking on more responsibilities. 

Your employees must have a  “business owner mindset” as this is crucial in their growth and development, especially if they’re candidates for a promotion. You can encourage your star employees to develop this kind of mindset by encouraging them to think outside of the box and including them in important discussions about the organisation. This will show them that you value their input, which can motivate them to lead in their respective departments. 

With a business owner mindset, your staff members will not limit themselves to their roles within your organisation, they will take initiative in handling different areas of the business and eagerly lead new projects because they see these tasks as learning opportunities.

If they’re already displaying this type of mindset, you need to recognise and reward their efforts and encourage them to take on a leadership role. This will boost their self-confidence and motivate them to continue taking initiative in handling different business aspects.

2. They have strong people skills

Well-developed soft skills are necessary for business leaders, particularly for employees with high potential for promotion. 

Soft skills your employees on the promotion track must have include:

• Conflict resolution – Your employee should be able to identify the source of conflict  and provide solutions that both parties can support. Your employee should be able to keep the peace and bring back people together in a positive way.
• Negotiation – This is an important skill especially when your employee is becoming more actively involved in major business decisions and discussions. Negotiation skills will hone their listening skills as well as their ability to compromise.
• Persuasion – Contrary to popular belief, persuasion isn’t forcing someone to do things a certain way; it’s the ability to help people see things from a different perspective and how it can be beneficial to them.
• Influence – Employees on the promotion track must be well-respected and looked up to by their colleagues and junior staff, respectively. Their standing and reputation in your organisation impact the influence they have on the rest of your staff.
• Coaching and mentoring – Your employees should be open to coaching and mentoring from you and other senior managers to help them further develop their leadership skills. They also need to develop their own mentoring skills so that they can coach their junior staff members in the future.

Having great people skills, and not just professional technical skills, allow your employees to work well in teams and manage junior staff members.

3. They’re regularly involved in solving organisational problems and concerns

Observe how involved your employees are in pinpointing and addressing problems and issues within the organisation. How have they contributed to boosting overall morale and increasing efficiency?

This will also be a good indicator of your employees’ problem-solving skills, which is necessary as they start rising in the ranks. In fact, the CEO World Magazine states that problem-solving skills are a critical CEO issue. 

C-suite executives face larger and more complex problems, and business models are continuously being disrupted as we transition to a post-pandemic world. This necessitates strategic and creative problem-solving capabilities so that organisations can adapt and pivot when necessary. 

4. They have a significant positive impact on your organisation

Measuring the “positive impact” of an employee may seem abstract at first glance, but setting proper measures in place can help you assess how much your staff members contribute to the success of your organisation, which can help you identify which employees to promote at certain time periods. 

You can measure employee performance by tracking key metrics such as:

• Work execution – You must measure your employee’s ability to prioritise, delegate tasks and manage their time effectively. Using a project management platform can help you monitor these areas so that you can monitor how your employees are progressing in each project.
• Work quality – You need to track the output of your employees, whether that’s delivering products and services on time, providing excellent customer service or hitting their sales quota.
• Attitude – An employee’s attitude can greatly impact the rest of the team, for better or worse. So it’s important to observe an employee’s ability to collaborate and communicate with others as well as accept feedback and criticism from others.
• Customer feedback – Employees on the promotion track should be able to build strong relationships with existing customers and create connections with prospects.
• Peer evaluation – Potential leaders should have a positive camaraderie with their colleagues and junior staff so that they can manage their own teams or departments.

5. They handle their mistakes and failures maturely 

It’s natural for every employee to make a mistake, but what’s important is how they manage those failures. Do they shift the blame to their co-worker? Do they try to cover up their errors? Or did they step up and take responsibility for their actions?

Being accountable to yourself and your actions is a true mark of a leader, and it’s a quality that must be evident in employees you potentially want to promote. 

Promoting employees is an important aspect of your staff development and succession planning, so it’s crucial to closely monitor your employees’ performance. Developing metrics to track the progression of your employees’ growth will give you a clear idea of which staff members should be promoted.

We are a business advisory firm dedicated to helping business leaders in growing their organisations. Contact us and we will guide you through your journey.